Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the shores of northeast Florida in April of 1513. He called the area “la Florida” in honor of Spain’s Easter time celebration “Pascua Florida” (feast of the flowers). He never discovered the legendary Fountain of Youth but, if it exists, it could well be somewhere in Florida. Perhaps one of the 58.9 million tourists that visited the Sunshine State in 1999 knows where it is?

Florida, over the years has become one of the world’s strongest tourist magnets, with sun soaked beaches and crystal springs. And with a little help from a mouse, Walt Disney World continues to lure more visitors than any other single attraction anywhere in the world. A word of caution, “Watch out for alligators.” Once endangered, alligators have made a strong comeback and have become something of a nuisance. Hold onto your small pets.

If you want to go to the moon, you’ll probably have to leave from Florida. John Glenn became the first American in orbit when he blasted off from Cape Canaveral in 1962. On July 20, 1969, only seven years later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

As mentioned above, Florida was named by Ponce de Leon in 1512. “La Florida,” he called this land, Spanish for flowery, covered with flowers, or abounding in flowers. Historians favor the idea that Ponce de Leon named the state because he discovered it on Easter or Palm Sunday. Others don’t discount this theory, but impress upon us that the full flush of spring was on the area and the abundance of flowers in bloom and the “fragrant and delicious odors” certainly played a role.

Florida became the twenty-seventh state in the United States on March 3, 1845. William D. Moseley was elected the new state’s first governor, and David Levy Yulee, one of Florida’s leading proponents for statehood, became a U.S. Senator. By 1850 the population had grown to 87,445, including about 39,000 African American slaves and 1,000 free blacks.

The slavery issue began to dominate the affairs of the new state. Most Florida voters—who were white males, ages twenty-one years or older—did not oppose slavery. However, they were concerned about the growing feeling against it in the North, and during the 1850s they viewed the new anti-slavery Republican party with suspicion. In the 1860 presidential election, no Floridians voted for Abraham Lincoln, although this Illinois Republican won at the national level. Shortly after his election, a special convention drew up an ordinance that allowed Florida to secede from the Union on January 10, 1861. Within several weeks, Florida joined other southern states to form the Confederate States of America.